This is a good project-based book for those wanting to put simple cross-stitch portraits of people into settings of various kinds. The first section goes over the basics -- materials & stitches. The second section covers customization, including skin & hair color, expressions, and changing height and width. While this is in no way as detailed as the author's self-published books, it's enough to get the reader started.

The bulk of the book is the projects, each both pictured and charted in color. No floss numbers are given because that's part of the customization. often the instructions are sketchy as well.If you are familiar with stitchpeople's projects this won't be a problem, but it will be confusing to beginners.

The final section shows how to frame using a hoop with an illustrated tutorial. This is the best of its kind I have seen.

Thank you netgalley for the arc! I adore this book! The pictures are clear and everything is colorful and so creative. I plan to purchase my own copy to use over and over again !

Customize Your Cross-Stitch: Friends & Family : Learn to customize, prepare, stitch, and finish your very own personalized cross-stitch creations. This is a lovely introductory book to learning cross stitch and customizing it they you want it. It is quite basic and simple so is a good starting place for creative beginners. The pictures are clear and plentiful and the instructions are step by step and easy to follow. You will learn stitches, pattern reading and tweaking and there is even an inspiration gallery to get you creativity flowing. Overall a very good book.

I was very impressed by this book. I have been a cross stitcher for more than 30 years, and created a few patterns myself.

The author shares several generic patterns to use for family portraits, and then explains (and shows!) you how to modify and customize those patterns so that the people look like your own family. Customizations include how to make people taller and shorter, change hairstyles and color, change facial tones, change eyes, add facial hair etc. It also covers how to make changes in the background, and to the borders etc, so that you really make your pattern appropriate for your family.

I found the instructions very easy to follow, and there were lots of examples to demonstrate how to apply the techniques.

What a gem of a book!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. The book is for both newbies, including basic technical info as well as nice patterns for panels of figures, families as well as figures within certain environments.
Photos were clear and beautifully taken, there are detailed pattern pages. I found the face patterns simple and to the point. Thanks

I just recently started getting back into cross-stitching and was thinking about trying to create my own designs but had no idea where to start. This book has not only given me a ton of new ideas but also tips on how to create them. The scenes included in the book are not too difficult and can be adapted as needed. It was also really helpful just to know how to create people in a cross-stich. The tips for the different kinds of stitches is also really helpful (especially with the French knot which has long been an enemy of mine). The tips on thread colors offers a good starting point for making original designs.

This book is great! It gives a list of materials you need as well as step by step instructions on how to cross-stitch! The patterns included are beautiful. I think it’s great for beginners and experts alike.